Protecting our Oceans: In recent weeks the world has shown unprecedented unity

We bless ourselves in our ability to express the light we truly are at the heart of our being, and thus to become willing tools to uphold, heal and sustain our beautiful planet.Pierre Pradervand, from his Global Oneness Day 2016 blessing.

On October 28, 2016 24 nations and the European Union agreed to create the world’s largest marine protected area in Antarctica’s Ross Sea. It will cover an area of 1.57 millions sq. km (an area equivalent to the France, Germany and Spain). Under the plan, everything from fishing to mineral extraction will be prohibited in an area covering1.12 million sq.km. As one of the last intact marine area, it is viewed as a kind of Garden of Eden by naturalists. A third of the world’s Adelie penguins live there. The aim is to protect a pristine region that is home to a huge variety of marine animals – most importantly a superabundance of plankton and krill, the foundation of the aquatic food chain.

The Ross Sea agreement follows an August designation by President Obama of what is now the second largest marine protected area, Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Pacific expanding the 140,000 square miles sanctuary created by President Bush in 2006 by 442,781 square miles

Along with his expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Monument, Mr. Obama designated the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, a 4,913 square mile protected area off the East Coast and the first marine reserve in the Atlantic Ocean.

There are now 5,000 such areas around the world. Each is a small step forward in protecting the ocean, less than 1 percent of which is now covered. As with the Paris climate accord, which officially takes effect tomorrow, these steps are evidence of something else: humanity’s increasing consensus that the home planet must be treated with care.